How to Prevent Kids From Leaving the Church

COURAGEOUS PARENTING

Isaac & Angie Tolpin - becourageousministry.org

Religion & Spirituality, Parenting, Kids & Family, Christianity

4.9 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You can say you are intentional parents, but is your intentionality actually encouraging real faith, or performance-based faith that doesn't last? Conservative intentionality can still lead children down the deadly trough of performance-based religiosity. Listen to this with an open mind as you reflect on your own parenting and family rhythms and see if you discover opportunities to dismantle performance-based faith and encourage real faith in your children. There's nothing as important as where your children will spend eternity, and while you can't save your children and are to trust God with them, He's also trusting you with them. He's counting on you and your spouse to disciple them daily with an approach that reaches the heart — not just looks the part. Topics: Christian parenting, raising kids with real faith, performance-based religion, heart-level discipleship, intentional parenting, family rhythms, homeschool family, faith that lasts. 📖 Want to go deeper? Courageous Parenting by Isaac and Angie Tolpin gives you 31 biblical keys to raising children who are equipped to thrive — in their faith, their character, and their relationships. 👉 Get the book on Amazon: Courageous Parenting Courageous Parenting Podcast is hosted by Isaac and Angie Tolpin of Be Courageous Ministry — helping Christian parents raise kids of faith in unprecedented times. #ChristianParenting #BiblicalParenting #DisciplingYourChildren #CourageousParenting #ChristianFamily 🔔 Subscribe for weekly encouragement for Christian families Check out companies we love and use! REDEEM™ HealthShare from Samaritan Ministries: https://hubs.ly/Q03V_2w90 CTC Math https://ctcmath.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. We're talking about how to prevent kids from leaving the church.
0:04.2	Yes, there is a ton that you can do. It doesn't have to be that way for your family.
0:09.5	That's right. This is one of those epidemics that has hit the church. And over the last decade, we've seen this increasing problem where kids are leaving the church by age 18.
0:19.7	And so we're talking about the two main things
0:21.8	that we believe need to change, be assessed. One of them is heavily on the parents. The other is
0:28.3	heavily on the body of Christ, actually. And so, you know, do kids feel valued as a member of the
0:34.7	body of Christ? I think that if that one thing hugely changed, that would be huge.
0:38.6	And I think if parents took to heart what's in this episode, it would make a really big difference.
0:43.2	So buckle your seatbelt, enjoy the show.
0:45.8	I think this is the question that parents need to have an answer for, need to know how they're doing with,
0:52.0	and a lot of people are asking right now.
0:54.0	You know, one of the statistics that we've talked about over the years is this, you know, it's different from denomination to denomination. So it's somewhere between like 60 and 70 percent of kids are leaving the church by age 18. And, you know, that's part of why we started the courageous parenting ministry just foundationally.
1:11.5	We were like, it doesn't have to be this way.
1:12.9	Why is this such a big problem?
1:16.2	And so today, of course, we have to talk about this concept.
1:19.8	There's two main points we're going to go over today that we believe are like at the core
1:24.7	of what could prevent your children from leaving the church when they're
1:28.6	older. So I think this is a very like rudimentary but very important conversation. I think a lot of
1:34.2	people in church leadership are also talking about this, like evaluating what can we do differently?
1:38.8	And while we're not going to get into like the methodology of how church functions, I think that first and foremost, if kids are leaving
1:46.6	the church by age 18, what is it that they're leaving? Are they leaving going to a building on
1:51.7	Sundays? Or are they walking away from the faith? And so that's the first question I think that
	...

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